John McCain when times were bad

In the post below about Sen McCain’s blogger call, I noted our participation in these calls this summer, when McCain’s political fortunes were at their lowest. This is my account of the call McCain held shortly after he had found out his campaign was broke, fired his top staffers, and returned exhausted from a trip to Iraq, where the surge had only just started to produce tangible positive results.
After that call, I wrote:

Though not a McCain supporter, I remain a McCain admirer, and never more than today. He sounded tired (who wouldn’t be) and maybe a little bit discouraged. But he remains a warrior, and the clearest most reliable voice in our political class on the most important issue of our time.